1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to copying machines, and more particularly, to copying machines to which such recording media as IC cards are connectable.
2. Description of the Related Art
For maintenance of copying machines of many users, a service man takes various proper measures by referring to a management note with a setting stage, history and the like of a copying machine described therein and fills items concerning the above-described measures in the management note to prepare for the subsequent maintenance.
With respect to a copying machine of a certain user which toner is set to type A with concentration 5 at the time of shipping from a factory, for example, when the necessity arises for changing the toner concentration to 4 because all the toner supplied to the market is changed to type B, a service man changes the toner concentration of said copying machine to 4 and then fills in the management note of said copying machine that the toner type is B and the toner concentration is 4.
Also presented is a device having a memory storing the above-described setting stage, history and the like which are readable as required (Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 62-75747).
In general, a change of a setting stage of a user's copying machine (a change of a toner concentration to meet said change of a toner type, parts replacement for improving and the like) is carried out by a service man at the time of maintenance. In other words, a setting stage of the copying machine is changed when some trouble occurs to the machine. In addition, the above-described setting change and parts change are carried out for the parts related to the above-described trouble.
Various parts of a copying machine of a certain model are improved to be supplied to the market in many cases. Therefore, it is difficult or requires great labor for even a service man to precisely understand the latest improvement level of all the parts used in all the models.
However, in order to take proper measures including a setting change to a copying machine for which the user of the machine requests a service man to be sent, it is necessary to precisely know the setting stage and the latest improvement level of the copying machine.
The setting stage of a copying machine can be seen from the description in the management note of the copying machine. However, manners describing the management note (or manners of bridging the description) differ from a service man to a service man to make understanding of the management note difficult at a rotation of the service men in charge. In addition, a used copying machine might have an imperfect management note. As described above, it is difficult or requires great labor for even a service man to know all the latest improvement levels of all the models.
The above-described copying device whose setting stage and the like can be read from a built in memory (the device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 62-75747) requires complicated operations for storing data relative to a change of a setting stage in a memory and employs limited types of data which can be stored. In addition, acknowledging the latest improvement level of said copying machine of the model has the same problem as described above.